Today Belongs to Justin Sellers
August 14, 2011 at 3:57 pm | Posted in Justin Sellers | 20 Comments
Not to diminish Hiroki Kuroda, who pitched seven scoreless innings in one of his finest outings of the season, or Matt Kemp, who continued to bolster his MVP case with his 28th homer and 31st stolen base, but if major league teams gave out “game balls” like they do in Little League, today’s would have the name “Justin Sellers” on it. That’s what happens when you take a 1-2 pitch with two on in the 6th inning of your third career big-league game and deposit it into the stands in front of your hometown crowd, thus setting off the demand for the the curtain call you see above.
With the sweep of the hapless Astros – and, look, I know it’s hard to underestimate a team that came into this series at 38-79, but holy lord are they atrocious – the Dodgers head off on a three-city, ten-game road trip that takes them through Milwaukee, Colorado, and St. Louis. As Vin Scully noted in the 9th inning of today’s game, the Brewers are 44-15 at home, which represents the most home wins in the bigs. The Dodgers leave today’s game at 55-64; I’ll predict they come home at 59-70.
******
Per a tweet by ESPN’s Buster Olney, Ted Lilly passed through waivers unclaimed, which is no surprise whatsoever, as anyone who claimed him would be responsible for the $28m or so left on his contract. The real question is, if someone had put in a claim, would Ned Colletti have let him go?
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Congrats to Sellers maybe he’ll be solid the rest of the year and make sure we don’t resign Miles to some obscene contract.
Comment by Jon#7#22— August 14, 2011 #
Sellers has had remarkably similar 2010/2011 years in the minors with 17 2B’s and 14 HR each year in 325-350 PA. I know his numbers are much higher at home this year, but couldn’t find last years, but he does appear to at least have some pop in his bat, which for a middle infielder wouldn’t be bad if he could play 2nd and hit say 8 HR’s and OBP around .350….yeah I know he’s only played 3 games, but I kinda liked him in ST so who knows?
Comment by Jon#7#22— August 14, 2011 #
I hear you. I don’t ever see him as starter material, but as a decent 2B/SS backup with a plus glove and some mild pop at minimum salary? Sure, I could get behind that.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— August 14, 2011 #
Nothing wrong with letting him be the opening day second baseman next season if he continues to put up decent numbers the rest of this season. He and Dee have already played together a lot in Albuquerque, IIRC. I’m hoping he can continue to be effective this season, because I don’t want Bernie to trade Webster and Lemmerman for Adam Kennedy.
Comment by The Dude Abides— August 14, 2011 #
Sellers definitely has the most appropriate last name possible for a player on the 2011 Dodgers.
Comment by SamL— August 14, 2011 #
Isn’t ‘Kuo” Korean for kwap?
Comment by lWerthFan— August 14, 2011 #
The Dodgers are going to be looking for middle infield depth for next year beyond Gordon/Uribe, Sellers and Dejesus could compete for such a role, but my money is on a free agent, with Dejesus and Sellers starting every day at AAA.
Comment by Table— August 14, 2011 #
2012
AAA
C Federowicz
1st Van Slyke
2nd Dejesus
3rd Mitchell/Denker
SS Sellers
OF Russell
OF Silverio
OF Castellanos
I think the Dodgers keep Sellers at AAA next year as depth. If Lemmerman moves on to AAA in 2013 as planned, then you might see Sellers on the MLB squad. Then again, maybe Sellers beats out Gordon and becomes the every day SS, you never know.
With Denker having an impressive year split between High A and AA, and needing a place to play in 2012, I wonder if Mitchell could make the MLB team thus opening up a AAA spot for Denker. Third base on the big league club is definitely a big question mark for 2012, as it would be hard to go into the season with Uribe as the only option. Might Andy LaRoche make a return to blue ala Dioner Navarro?
Sands might not make the MLB team out of spring training in which case he would still start every day at AAA between 1st/OF with the other 4 at those positions sharing the remaining playing time.
AA
C Erickson (JT Wise/Matt Wallach if Erickson starts 2012 at AAA)
1st Gallagher
2nd Pedroza
3rd Delmonico
SS Lemmerman
OF Smith
OF Galvez
OF Songco
Comment by Table— August 14, 2011 #
Off subject, but do you think anyone would claim Matt Kemp off waivers if Frank McCourt Ned, Juan Uribe, and Tedd Lilly had to come with him.
Comment by dodgers66— August 14, 2011 #
No one would take that deal, except ned……More than likely he will sign a 5 year 50 million dollar deal with los angeles, develop some kind of knee problem and play only 100 games through the contract only to go to the giants in 2017 and have a mvp year and win a world series………
Comment by MotoMikey— August 14, 2011 #
You got the answer only Ned would take himself and Frank and the other 2 bad contracts and call it a job well done.
Comment by dodgers66— August 15, 2011 #
Just realized I posted this in the previous thread:
Wow…just read the whole interview and it’s clear that Ned didn’t mention Erickson when he was discussing the organization’s minor league catchers prior to the Robinson-Fedex trade. He was talking about Wallach and the 2011 draftee. Good God…if Erickson keeps tearing up AA, is some other team going to swoop in and steal him by offering Ned a crappy 35-year old PVL, just like in 2008 when Cleveland stole Santana by giving us two months of Casey Blake? Having this moron as our GM is soooo depressing :(
Comment by The Dude Abides— August 15, 2011 #
Let’s wait and see if Erickson is for real. Last year he couldn’t hit a lick, has he figured it out or having just a lucky year. How is his defense?
Comment by Jon#7#22— August 15, 2011 #
His defense seems to be fairly average in the Caught Stealing stat, around 30%. Also, just about everyone seems to hit poorly in Low A – Santana, for another example.
Comment by The Dude Abides— August 15, 2011 #
Yeah, Santana didn’t really start to produce offensively until he got to High-A, which at that time was Vero Beach. Anyone with a brain larger than a pea could tell he had a chance to make it to the majors. Anyone with a brain larger than a pin head could see that he should be given a chance and not been discarded for cash.
Comment by SamAdams— August 15, 2011 #
I believe Inland Empire was the Hi-A team at the time.
Comment by Brandon— August 15, 2011 #
The ground ball machine strikes again. This time, for a triple play.
Comment by @BrocNessMonster— August 15, 2011 #
And again…
Comment by @BrocNessMonster— August 15, 2011 #
I use to think we were bad at hitting, but after tonight’s game I now realize we’re just awesome at getting out.
Comment by Brandon— August 15, 2011 #
[...] strikes again: Justin Sellers comes up, hits a three-run homer in front of his hometown crowd in his third career game, and all of a sudden my Twitter feed is lighting up with people suggesting that Dee Gordon be [...]
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